Apple Intelligence isn’t scheduled to hit iPhones, iPads, and Macs until later this summer, but the company is already reportedly planning to charge its users a monthly fee to access certain features, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
He notes that while the basic features discussed during the AI system’s reveal at WWDC 2024 will remain free to users, the company is considering eventually implementing a program along the lines of “Apple Intelligence+” that could offer additional features and functionality for a monthly subscription, akin to what the company already does for iCloud.
Apple has been somewhat hamstrung by its own success as of late. Its devices last longer than ever, and even multiple release generations later remain capable of running the most recent operating systems. iOS 11, for example, will reportedly be able to use Apple Intelligence when it arrives with the release of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and MacOS Sierra.
Combined with fewer significant design changes to the devices themselves in recent and an increasingly challenging economy, the company is having increasing difficulty convincing consumers to trade in their old gear for the latest and greatest it has to offer. Thus, Apple is looking to diversify its income streams — in the form of software subscription models.
This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to users. Apple already disclosed that it plans to take a cut of the subscriptions charged by its upcoming AI model partners, rumored to include Anthropic and Google (as well as those in the Chinese market, though sorry, Meta, not you) so it’s not a huge departure for the company to consider dipping into users’ wallets for premium Apple Intelligence functions.
Doing so would accomplish the same basic effect that Apple is trying to do with its growing stable of AI model partners. By diversifying its income streams, just as with recruiting multiple AI partners, Apple gives itself wiggle room to pivot should the need arise and, in this case, lessen the company’s reliance on convincing folks to buy new $1,400 smartphones every 18 months.
That’s not to say the company won’t still provide its users with incentives to trade up to the latest generation of hardware. As Gurman points out, while seven-year-old Macs will still be able to run the upcoming macOS Sierra, other features like Game Mode and iPhone Mirroring still need the newer hardware.
What’s more, the company has already disclosed that your Mac will need an M1 processor or newer in order to access the new AI features. There’s obviously no word yet on what precise form the potential subscription model could take, what it would offer, or how much it could cost.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.